Under normal circumstances, the streets surrounding the sinister Burrow nightclub - Phoenixbrook's Goth hangout for the various dark and dangerous inhabitants of the city - were appropriately poorly lit and eerily shadowy. It was therefore slightly ironic, in more ways than one, that the actual nightclub burned furiously, illuminating every inch of the nearby streets in a fiery glow.

Whatever Alder, the Elysia leader, had done - and how he had actually achieved it - the results had been dramatic, as the entire place had been blown apart. It seemed impossible that anyone could have survived the explosion, much less the subsequent inferno. Jarret and Ailee had been the only ones in there at that point, and there was no chance they could have escaped from the building in time.

The Phoenixbrook fire brigade had arrived swiftly, despite the labyrinthine narrow streets, and they appeared to be winning the fight against the blaze. That was a miracle in itself, considering the age of the building and the amount of it that had been built from wood. By the time the flames had been driven back and extinguished, just skeletal remains were left of the club, charred black, with the water from the hoses pouring down them, steam rising lazily from the timbers.

The fire brigade chief, a tall, dark furred equine, stepped cautiously through the soaking wood, which crunched and crackled under his heavy boots. He expected to find the worst, if indeed there was anything to find. As the chief stepped forward, there was a sudden rumble as part of the floor gave way beneath his feet, and he leapt back quickly, grabbing the remains of a metal pipe that jutted out of the ground. The fire had evidently badly weakened the floorboards over the cellar. One of the chief's crew, a tiger following carefully not far behind, was gestured at, indicating he shouldn't go any further. The chief peered down into the darkness of the cellar, trying to judge how far the drop was, but saw nothing, so he activated the powerful torch on his safety helmet.

Shining the light down into the cellar, his breath caught in disbelief. Grabbing his radio, he yelled, "I've found them! We need to get this place secured as fast as possible, and then I need medical staff here immediately."

Far below lay Ailee, with Jarret lying over her protectively. Both unconscious but, impossibly, alive and for the most part unharmed.

While the drama at The Burrow had been unfolding in the east of Phoenixbrook, Eliki had been blissfully unaware of the goings-on, over in the west of the city, at the house he and Leana owned. His daughter and Ailee's - the little six year old snowkitten called Keryan - had gone upstairs to bed an hour earlier, but had woken from an especially bad nightmare. So Eliki had been busy making hot chocolate (with marshmallows, of course, which were considered vital, perhaps more so than the hot chocolate) for them both.

Halfway up the stairs, Eliki nearly dropped the tray with mugs on, as a sudden gut-wrenching feeling struck him, and he sensed that something was severely wrong. He and his twin sister, Leana, shared a strange, perhaps psychic, link and it was often that link which told them when the other twin wasn't happy or was in danger. However, the link also crisscrossed, for unfathomable reasons, between the twins of the Sharinda clan, and Ailee and Jarret who were twins of the Shaylanii clan. Eliki felt sudden warning signs that strongly suggested not only was his sister in dire trouble, but so were the twins at The Burrow. It was no comfort whatsoever to know that those senses were rarely mistaken.

Shakily, he climbed the rest of the stairs, putting the tray down on the top of the banister, planning to grab his mobile phone to call Leana from his bedroom. It was fortunate that he didn't still have the tray in his paws, as he would have dropped it when he saw Keryan sitting on the bed, eyes shut tight, as she clutched her blood-red pendant. Surrounding the little snowkitten was a strange, powerful red glow that warped and twisted its shape like a rapidly moving lava lamp.

Tears ran down her face as she opened her eyes and sobbed, "Daddy! They're all in danger. I can't help them all!" Eliki ran to grab his daughter as her eyes closed again and she collapsed sideways on the bed.

Hundreds of miles away in Ritore, in the town of Fintel, Leana blinked several times and opened her eyes. Her vision blurred and her back hurt from where she'd crashed onto the floor. It took only a few seconds to realise where she was and what had actually happened.

It seemed that the energy shield she'd created around the stage, to protect her mother and the rest of the Nightlights band, as well as the vixen called Serien, was still in place. The Elysia officers, Attra and Ashden, watched the proceedings from the auditorium. The FL7 hadn't torn the shield down - it had simply blasted a temporary hole in it, giving the bizarre cyborg enough time to slip through onto the stage. The energy bolt it had used to break the shield had also struck Leana, knocking her unconscious, albeit only for a short time.

Moments before awaking, she'd felt a sudden surge of healing energy which had helped her partially recover. Leana had sensed that somehow it had been transferred to her from her niece, Keryan, but just as suddenly the flow of magic had ceased, having only partially completed its job. It was enough to bring Leana round, but she still felt fairly groggy.

The FL7, after pouncing onto the stage, had grabbed Serien, extending a spike from its right hand intending to impale her with it. That had been the point, just as Leana fell unconscious, that Heather had screamed. Leana's mum, Koreen, had grabbed the steel keyboard stand which had previously held what were now the charred remains of her synths. She swung it as hard as possible against the demonic shape of the FL7's head. Aside from the satisfying metallic clang, it hadn't made any noticeable impact, but despite that the FL7 had hurled Serien aside, spinning round rapidly to grab Koreen by the throat, pinning her against the back wall.

As it attempted to throttle her, the other band members had tried in vain to force it to let go, hitting it with whatever they could find, or prying at its steel fingers to no avail. Heather tried again to lever open the backstage door - the only potential escape route left. It was then that Leana had woken, greeted by the sight of her mum turning blue in the face. Still clutching Koreen, the FL7's powerful audio circuits sensed that Leana was awake, and it turned to face her, its eyes blazing red. It lifted its other arm and the hand transformed into a multi-barrelled gun, as it prepared to open fire.

Leana was quicker. She unleashed a bolt of energy that hurtled from both her paws, slamming into the creature with considerable force. It smashed into the far wall hard enough to have killed a normal person outright, and lay there momentarily stunned.

Leana staggered over to her mum, who gasped for air. She touched her throat gently, helping it to heal as rapidly as possible. Outside the shield, Arren slammed his feline paws against the magical barrier in an attempt to get their attention.

"You've seen nothing yet," he sneered. "This time, Leana, was just a trial run and..." He was cut short as Leana hurled a fireball directly at him, which passed through the shield and knocked him to the floor. That in turn must have broken his concentration. Moments later, Heather triumphantly forced open the stage door.

Leana watched warily as the FL7 leapt fluidly back onto its feet, She yelled at the others to leave as fast as possible, just before the cyborg pounced towards her. Leana flung her white-furred arms forward, forming a rectangular cyan shield a few metres in front of her. The FL7 crashed into it, immediately leaping up and forcing itself against the flashing energy of the shield, pushing forward unrelentingly in an attempt to reach the snowkitten. She pushed back with her magic, causing a deadlock, until the creature extended a long, razor sharp blade along its wrist, using it to slash at the force field, disrupting Leana's spell as it edged forward, inch by inch.

Leana noticed that the others had all escaped through the stage door. Her eyes narrowed. As the FL7 put its entire strength and weight against the shield, Leana waited a moment or two, and then suddenly cancelled her spell. The cyborg shot forwards rapidly, possibly far faster than intended, swinging the blade round in a wide arc, ready to strike. Leana's timing was perfect. From point blank range, she unleashed an immensely powerful bolt of magic. So near to its target, the bolt tore straight through the FL7's armoured chest, exploding out its back and hurling it to the other end of the stage. As it struggled to stand, Leana flung another bolt towards it, throwing the FL7 into the energy shield around the stage. There was a long, blinding crackle of electricity through and around the cyborg, until finally it collapsed and keeled forwards face down on the stage.

Leana watched momentarily as the billows of smoke from the FL7 turned to grey wisps. It would have been easy to assume it had been defeated, but the lack of concern from Attra and Ashden was more than enough of a warning for Leana. She backed warily towards the stage door. Even before she reached it, she discovered exactly why the two Elysia officers had seemed so sure of themselves.

The burned and twisted, exposed wires and the smashed circuits visible in the hole Leana's spell had punched through the FL7 were knitting back together. It couldn't be possible, Leana thought, going cold. The technology used in the Phoenixbrook train network had a basic ability to repair itself, at least providing a "sticking plaster" solution until the technicians could arrive to repair any damage fully. However, what Leana witnessed now was vastly more advanced - the Elysia must have worked some phenomenally complex spells into the cyborg. Impossible it may have been, but the damage was rapidly repairing, and even the ultra-tough armour was sealing itself, becoming solid again, leaving just a few scorch marks on the torso.

Without warning, its eyes gleaming a fierce red, the cyborg launched itself straight at the snowkitten. Leana let out a panicked "No!" and used her powers to fling the remains of a massive amplifier into the side of the cyborg, striking it with crushing force. It skidded across the floor, using extended claws to slow itself down, and pounced back onto its feet, ready to launch at Leana again. She hurtled through the stage door as fast as possible.

It didn't follow her.

Ashden had yelled a loud and authorative "Enough! And the pursuit had instantly stopped. Leana stood in the corridor, back to the wall in an attempt to conceal herself, just in case, the whole area dimly lit by a blood red bulb. She struggled to hear what was being said over the sound of her hammering heart.

Attra shouted out, "I know you're still there, snowkitten. You can hear me. We're leaving now, after that little test run. It went very well and the FL7 has learned more than we could ever have hoped for. Give your regards to your bitch mother..."

And then there was near-silence, apart from the fading metallic sound of the FL7 walking rapidly away.

Leana slid to the floor, covering her face with her hands, too exhausted to even shed tears, barely even noticing when her mother cautiously padded back along the corridor, crouching down to hold her daughter tight.